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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 5 years

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Michael After Midnight: Heathers

Heathers is a film that in some ways has not aged well, due to the plot involving bringing guns to school, murdering bully classmates, and an attempted terrorist attack on a high school by an angry, disaffected white boy. Back when this came out in the 80s, there was far less concern about things like school shootings, so this film could play these things up for black comedy rather than try to portray it seriously. But really, this is one of those rare occasions where it’s actually true to say “a film like this could never be made today!”

And it’s a real shame too, because beneath the pitch black comedy and dark subject matter there is a lot of solid, resonant messages and a plot that actually deconstructs the shallow view imitators and even some fans have of it.

I think perhaps the most important thing this movie did was show high school as it is: a miserable, shitty pile of cliques and unhappy teenagers struggling to make it through a single day without desperately wishing for their untimely demise. There is rampant bully, belittling, lies, slander, cruel pranks… this movie doesn’t waste any time sugarcoating things. And while yes, some things are played up for dark laughs, I can confirm myself that the cruel and miserable atmosphere of this film’s high school is barely off base from reality. I think just about the only thing lacking in realism is the fact that a guy like J.D. wasn’t called to the office on day one and grilled extensively by the principal, but hey, it was the 80s.

Another thing is how this movie deconstructs its core concept as the film goes on. Everything is set up as a movie where the miserable, bullied, browbeaten Veronica rises up with her handsome new boyfriend and strikes back at the nasty bullies in her high school, killing them off one by one. Fuck yeah! Revenge is awesome! Except… it isn’t. It’s shown that, as awful as these people they killed were, they still had families and friends who loved them, they had so many people who cared, and even if that wasn’t enough the way they set up their deaths as tragic suicides only goes to make them martyrs, rendering the vengeance hollow as in death all their sins in life are erased and ignored and people look far more fondly on them. Hell, by framing the jerk jocks as gay lovers killing themselves because they couldn’t openly be together, they managed to make a bunch of people in the late 80s be less homophobic! Need I remind you this was the decade in which the F-word was a pretty casual curse word instead of one of the absolute worst things you could possibly say? Their revenge was just that toothless.

And it all comes down to J.D. While he’s built up as this cool, rebellious figure bent on teaching society a lesson, as the film goes on it’s shown that even with all of his excuses, even with his shitty life, he’s still ultimately just a pathetic, angry, broken loner lashing out at the world around him without a care for who he hurts. Ultimately this is what helps drive Veronica away from him and reject his ideals. J.D. is a truly interesting villain; in many ways, he’s a prototype for Arthur Fleck from Joker, a broken man with a shitty home life who is driven to madness and murder because of the cruel, remorseless society he lives in; Christian Slater even seems to be doing his best Jack “The Joker” Nicholson impersonation in this film, even. And much like Fleck would decades later, J.D. shows that a shitty life never justifies atrocities, and for all the sympathy he can be afforded he definitely does cross the line, and the movie doesn’t really pretend otherwise.

This movie is filled with dark social satire of things like the sensationalizing of teen suicide, the awfulness of high school, the hollowness of revenge, and all of that, and yet it feels that far too many people take this movie at face value, viewing it as some sort of deranged power fantasy in which the bullies get what’s coming to them and their victims come out on top. I’m not sure where they get this idea because by the end of the film J.D. is dead, Veronica has survived but is fundamentally changed as a person, and all the people who bullied them are now forever remembered as tragic angels with their bad qualities brushed aside, because sometimes dead is better, as they say.

It’s interesting to note that the original ending of this movie would have been far darker than the ending we got, with the bomb going off and J.D.’s deranged worldview - “Let's face it, all right! The only place different social types can genuinely get along with each other is in heaven.” - being reaffirmed. I think that such an ending would have utterly ruined the film and made it a hard sell to anyone with a shred of decency. It would just be far too bleak and joyless, and not even in a fun way. It’s just depressing. The ending we got, where Veronica rejects J.D.’s insane bullshit and decides to live, is far more powerful and resonant.

This movie is such a brilliant deconstructive parody of 80s teen movies, shining a dark light on the less pleasant aspects of being a teenager while showing the futility of revenge, the baggage that comes with dating a quote-unquote bad boy, and sort of deranged mindset that would lead someone to think murdering their classmates could somehow make the world a better place… And yet so many fans take it at face value and just see at as “Wow! Cool revenge against the bullies story!” This movie is so much more than that, and to reduce it down into something s tacky, tasteless, and just plain not what it is at all is disturbing, to say the least. Let me put it this way: if Heathers actually was what some of its fans believe it is, I would probably agree that the movie shouldn’t exist.

But thankfully the movie isn’t that; it’s an absolutely brilliant dark comedy and an 80s classic. If you can stomach some truly dark and unpleasant subject matter and laugh at some really fucked up things, this is the movie for you, though I really hope you can use your critical thinking skills and not come out thinking J.D. had a point. It’s a fucked up movie about fucked up people showing the dark underbelly of high school and the society that produces that dark underbelly, and in that regard it excels. It’s the perfect cup of drain cleaner to wash down all those John Hughes movies.

#Michael After Midnight #movie review #review #Heathers #black comedy #cult classic

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narkinafive · 5 years

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more essay updates

what’s currently most interesting/annoying is how much context i give for each example. at what point am i just summarizing events? how much is too much or too little? is any of this even... relevant

anyhoot, under a cut, read and critique at your leisure my bros ❤❤❤❤❤❤🤟🤟🤟🤟💯💯💯

Few franchises can match the breadth of Star Wars, and fewer still can claim to be as iconic. Not only have the characters, dialogues, settings, and aesthetics been directly referenced and lovingly parodied across all genres, so too has John Williams’ music. Yet Williams’ music is perhaps most referenced, riffed on, and remixed within the franchise itself; it is difficult to find a piece of Star Wars media which does not contain any number of Williams’ leitmotifs, such as the bombastic “Main Title” fanfare, the sweeping majesty of the Force theme, or the foreboding, villainous “Imperial March.” Within the many, many Star Wars related properties, composers for the franchise’s “lower tier” [properties], i.e. any property outside of the nine-film “Skywalker Saga,” are presented with a difficult challenge: how does one emulate and reference Williams’ original, titanic score, keeping a coherent sonic aesthetic, without copying him directly, and allowing space for the composer’s own musical language?

The larger Star Wars chronology can be broken into three general eras: the Original Trilogy era (OT), which focuses on the time represented by the films A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Rogue One, the Sequel Trilogy era (ST), which is comprised of the films The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker, as well as the TV series Star Wars: Resistance, and the Prequel Trilogy era (PT), as represented by the films The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and Solo, as well as the TV series The Clone Wars. Of these properties, Williams has obviously scored the lion’s share of the films; Rogue One’s soundtrack was composed by Michael Giacchino, Resistance by Michael Tavera, Solo by John Powell, and The Clone Wars by Kevin Kiner.

Kiner’s other work for Star Wars was the score of another TV series, Star Wars Rebels. Rebels occupies an interesting place within the greater Star Wars chronology, qualifying as a prequel due to taking place before the events of A New Hope, yet both aesthetically and narratively more aligned with the OT, rather than the PT. Though Rebels is nominally a prequel, Kiner’s musical language sets it firmly within the OT era, with frequent sonic callbacks to Williams’ score, with each aesthetic connection serving not only to link the viewer to the OT era, but also, through its absences and deviations, highlight the narrative differences between Rebels and the original films. This is particularly exemplified in the parallels and contrasts between the heroes of Rebels and the OT, Ezra Bridger, and Luke Skywalker.

From the outset, several parallels can be drawn between Ezra Bridger and Luke Skywalker: both are orphans from provincial areas of the galaxy, both are accidentally caught up in insurrectionist rebel activity against the Empire, and both discover that they can wield the powers of the Force. They are even roughly the same age, born within days of each other. Contrasts do abound, however. Ezra receives several years of Jedi training from a former Jedi, while Luke receives very little; Ezra is actively involved with the Rebel Alliance from the very beginning, while Luke has to be drawn into it due to personal tragedy; Ezra’s primary motif is connected to the twin moons of his home planet of Lothal - this, in contrast to the famous scene of Luke Skywalker gazing into the twin sunset of his planet of Tatooine; and so on. [more parallels]

Set five years before the events of A New Hope, the backdrop of Rebels depicts the formal declaration of the Galactic Alliance, the establishment of the famous rebel base on the planet of Yavin IV, and numerous references to the secret construction of the Death Star, alongside several integral character cameos, including Lando Calrissian, Princess Leia, and Obi-wan Kenobi, while the main thrust of the story centers on the crew of the Ghost, an early rebel cell, and the journey of its newest crew member, Ezra Bridger. Described by Dave Filoni, Executive Producer and creator of Rebels, as a con artist, and Taylor Gray, the character’s actor, as a [street smart thief], Ezra happens upon the crew of the Ghost as they commit a minor act of terrorism against the Galactic Empire, stealing several crates of supplies. Rather than pick a side in the conflict, Ezra elects to steal a crate of the same supplies for himself, outrunning the comedically incompetent Imperial police force, and dodging the members of the Ghost crew as they try to get the supplies back, until Ezra is forced to seek refuge on the Ghost to escape the marginally more competent TIE figher pilots. After helping the crew in distributing the supplies - namely, food - to a nearby refugee camp, Ezra is convinced by the Ghost’s pilot and leader, Hera Syndulla, to assist in a rescue mission. Despite his initial capture and subsequent escape from Imperial custody, Ezra chooses to see the rescue mission through to the end, and witnesses the Ghost’s second-in-command, Kanan Jarrus, wield a lightsaber, revealing himself as a survivor of the presumed-extinct and quasi-legendary Jedi Order. Recognizing that Ezra has the same gift as him, Kanan offers to train him to wield the Force in order to continue fighting against the Empire, dispelling any notion that the Jedi are gone with a triumphant declaration, “Not all of us.”

Initially, Ezra joins the Rebellion not because it is the right thing to do, but because it is convenient to him at the time; the Ghost functions as a roof over his head, its crew members as a new set of parents and siblings, and its missions as a source of food and income, along with the added bonus of learning how to use an incredibly powerful, specialized weapon, despite the target it paints on his back. Filoni himself states [need src] that Ezra decides to join the Ghost not only to learn how to use a lightsaber, but because he is in need of a family, having lost his own parents at the age of seven, when they were arrested for their underground, anti-establishment radio broadcasts. Part of Ezra’s journey over the course of Rebels is re-learning how to think beyond himself, and sacrificing himself for the greater good of everyone, and not just the good of his family and friends--but, as one would expect, at the very beginning of his story, he is far more selfish than selfless. It is more than halfway into the first season before Ezra begins to truly comprehend the Jedi lessons Kanan has attempted to teach him, beyond lifting rocks with his mind, as he finally admits and begins to face his fears while in the middle of a vision quest (presided over by the disembodied voice of Master Yoda).

Over the course of the series, Ezra has frequent, deep brushes with the “Dark Side” of the Force, becoming more inclined to fight, hurt, or even kill in the name of pragmatism and gaining victories for the Rebel Alliance.

Luke’s introduction to the Rebel Alliance is equally accidental, though arguably far more heroic. When his uncle and adoptive father Owen purchases a pair of droids for the farm, Luke discovers a secret message hidden within one of them: Princess Leia’s plea to a mysterious Obi-wan Kenobi for aid. Luke’s first instinct is to help her, seeking out the reclusive loner Ben Kenobi for more information. [more]

These parallels are further underscored by their respective musical motifs. Consider Luke’s theme, the “Main Title” fanfare. [GL quote, SWO 2, 20 min in]. Comprised primarily of perfect intervals, the theme begins with an ascending fifth, an opening salvo so famous that music students everywhere, yours truly included, use it to identify perfect fifths in other contexts. As Lucas notes, the principal instrumentation is in the brass section, immediately conferring an old-world heroic air to Luke. [SWO hero’s journey quote]. [insert sheet music here, recap] As a theme, it is punchy, energetic, deliberately and intrinsically tied up in the “Rebel Fanfare,” and generally underscores moments of onscreen heroism and valiant derring-do. [explain] [example] [example] [example]

By contrast, while Ezra’s theme is also played by the horns, they are muted, thinner, ringing out more softly over shimmering, sustained strings. [insert sheet music here, recap] Ezra’s theme mostly serves to underscore the character’s moments of emotional reflection, rather than his superhuman action. The first iteration of Ezra’s theme, in contrast to the above, plays as Ezra observes the crew of the Ghost handing food supplies from afar. His whole worldview has clearly been shaken; rather than abscond with the supplies stolen from Imperials--supplies that, Ezra’s presence notwithstanding, were difficult to steal--the crew of the Ghost chooses to give most of them away (though a crate of weapons is sold to a shady businessman for income). Ezra’s first instinct had been to sell them himself, to any number of the black market dealers with which he has become familiar growing up. Of the many confusing aspects of this situation, one thing which must be puzzling him is why the crew had even offered him refuge on their ship. Surely if they were like any other thief or smuggler, they would have left him behind to be killed by the TIE Fighter pilot, either as a punishment for stealing the crates in the first place, or simply to get him out of the way. (Later, he will be even more shocked that they turn around to rescue him from an Imperial Star Destroyer, one of the Empire’s largest and most heavily guarded space vessels, despite having accidentally left him behind earlier in their haste to escape.) Now, however, this emotional confusion, coupled with a handy tug from the Force, compels him to sneak aboard the Ghost and snoop, where he stumbles on Kanan’s lightsaber and holocron, a treasure trove of Jedi information that only Jedi can open, which he promptly steals.

Ezra was born on “Empire Day,” the day that the Clone Wars were ended and the Galactic Empire was declared by Palpatine, formerly Senator, then Chancellor, and now Emperor. (It was that same day that the Emperor launched his assault on the Jedi Order, wiping nearly all of them out in one overwhelming blow. It has been theorized that this mass slaughter resonated throughout the Force, causing unborn Force sensitive children to panic and induce early labor in the mother. Incidentally, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa were born two days later.) For Ezra, Empire Day comes with its own baggage--this day is also the anniversary of his parents’ arrest for treason, which left him homeless and alone. This Empire Day, however, Ezra is not alone, but instead has joined up with a rebel cell determined to cause some mayhem and headaches for the Imperial occupiers. With Imperials distracted by preparations for a local parade, and their search for a particular Imperial data-worker named Tseebo, Ezra and the rebels happily ruin the parade, and, while hiding in the abandoned apartment which used to be Ezra’s childhood home, discover Tseebo already there. Tseebo was, by Ezra’s admission, a friend of his parents, though Ezra himself wants nothing to do with Tseebo now, who “went to work for the Empire, after they took my parents away.” (While it is left intentionally vague, there is a distinct possibility that Tseebo had a hand in his parents’ arrest and imprisonment.) In the years since, Tseebo had allowed himself to be implanted with cybernetic enhancements in order to increase his productivity, before downloading several caches of Imperial secrets, and attempting to flee. With all of the information in his head, Tseebo is little more than catatonic, able to walk and spout random information, but not truly understanding what is going on around him--until some turbulence aboard the Ghost appears to knock him back into consciousness. Seeing and recognizing Ezra, and perhaps knowing that he has a limited amount of time, Tseebo frantically tries to tell Ezra that he knows what happened to his parents, who had been presumed dead all this time.

Unfortunately, Tseebo cannot remain lucid for long, and Ezra must go and lure the pursuing Imperials off of their tail, in order to get Tseebo to Hera’s rebel operative, the mysterious Fulcrum.

#essay tag

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ralphlayton · 4 years

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Boosting and Deepening Engagement through Empathy in B2B Marketing

Empathy is more than a buzzword. It’s not a box to be checked, or an added finishing touch for content. If B2B marketers want to successfully engage human audiences and break free from the deluge of irrelevant messages swirling around today’s customers, empathy needs to be at the center of all strategic initiatives from start to finish.

What Does Empathy Mean in B2B Marketing?

Empathy is defined simply as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. But I’m not sure that characterization fully does it justice in the context of modern marketing. I rather like the way Zen Media CEO Shama Hyder described empathy in the better creative teamwork guide we helped our clients at monday.com put together: “Empathy is critical. It's much more than just having an understanding of what someone else's challenges might be. Part of it is that you have to give up being a control freak. As leaders, we should really look at the big picture and ask ourselves, is this necessary? Or is this just politicking, or someone trying to make it seem like it has to be done this way because it's the way they prefer?” Shama was speaking from the perspective of a business leader trying to get on the same page as their team, but it applies just as well to marketing endeavors. The critical first step in developing empathy is disconnecting from our own ingrained perceptions and assumptions. Only then can we truly understand and support the audiences we want to reach. Too often, empathy in marketing tends to be a bit narrow and self-centered (which is contradictory to the very concept itself). We often seek to understand only the challenges and pain points that drive interest in what we’re selling. Looking beyond this scope is necessary to build strong relationships founded on trust, especially now. “What you are creating, marketing and ultimately selling is but one piece of your customer’s life as a human on Earth. One very small piece,” said Mary Beech, principal at MRB Brand Consulting and former CMO of Kate Spade, in an AMA article on empathy in marketing. “And if we aren’t keeping in mind their full journey, including their emotional, mental, social and physical needs — as well as the challenges and joys they are facing — we cannot do our jobs well.” As Brian Solis wrote at Forbes recently, the need for empathetic customer experiences is greater than ever in the age of COVID-19 disruption. People have so much going on in their lives, and are facing so many unprecedented difficulties, that a myopic brand-centric focus is all the more untenable. “Traditional marketing will no longer have the same effect moving forward,” he argues. “If anything, it will negatively affect customer relationships rather than enhance them.” Agreed. So, let’s find a better way.

Engaging with True Empathy in the New Era of Marketing

Imagine if it was possible to sit down and have an in-depth conversation with each one of your customers and potential customers. You’d gain first-hand insight into their worldviews, their challenges, their hopes and dreams. Sadly, it’s not possible. You don’t have the time, nor do your customers. (Although I do recommend making a habit of engaging in direct, candid conversations with them when possible.) To make empathy scalable, marketers need to take advantage of all the tools at their disposal. This largely requires using data to connect the dots. “It’s critical for marketers to have a real-time 360 view and understanding of a customer’s full journey, at every stage, from discovery to engagement to retention and loyalty to advocacy,” Solis wrote at Forbes. Here are some suggestions for obtaining such a view: Use empathy-mapping. This practice, explained in a helpful primer from Nielsen Norman Group, involves creating a visualization of attitudes and behaviors to guide decision-making. Empathy-mapping originated in the world of UX design, but given how much user experience and customer experience now overlap, it’s becoming a powerful tool for marketers.

(Source: Nielsen Norman Group)

Coordinate and integrate your organizational efforts. Every customer-facing function in a company — marketing, sales, customer service — sees the customer from a different perspective. Seek ways to bring all these perspectives together into one centralized, holistic view. Per Solis: “Cross-functional collaboration is a mandate. As such, integration will become the new standard and will quickly become table stakes as every company rushes in this direction.” Tap into meaningful influencer relationships. Influencers can play a key role in empathetic marketing because they have relationships and perspectives extending beyond our brand ecosystems. If they align with your audience, influencers can bring unique insight and connect at deeper levels. Turning influencer engagements from mechanical to meaningful is essential to accomplishing this. Incidentally, Mr. Solis recently partnered with TopRank Marketing on the first-ever State of B2B Influencer Marketing report, in which our friend Ann Handley summarizes the impact quite well: “You could call yourself a good parent or a world-class marketer or an empathetic friend ... but any of those things would carry more weight coming from your child, customer, or BFF. So it is with integrating influencer content: It's a direct line to building trust and customer confidence.” Research and engage with topics that matter to your customers outside of their jobs. Given the connotations of B2B, it’s all too easy to isolate our customer research around what they do professionally. But these are human beings with lives outside of work. To drive powerful engagement, marketers should search for the cross-sections between their brand’s purpose and values, and what matters to their customers. A good example of this is found in the IBM THINK Blog, which is “dedicated to chronicling the fast-moving world of cognitive computing” and covers many important societal topics. (Recent focuses include a post on gender pronouns and a corporate environmental report.)

Examples of Empathetic B2B Marketing

Who’s getting it right and paving the way for a more empathy-driven approach to engaging B2B audiences? Here are a few examples:

My post on seven B2B brands that talk to consumers, not companies highlights several instances of an authentic and relatable human tone shining through.

It goes without saying that the video-conferencing service Zoom stumbled into a massive business opportunity with the dramatic pivot to remote work this year. The company could simply try to cash in and maximize that opportunity, but instead, they’re doubling down on building trust. Zoom’s CEO Eric S. Yuan recently wrote about his roots in China in articulating his organization’s support for this embattled region of the world, noting that Zoom is providing expanded features for free accounts and offering accessible resources and education. He also made the company’s tools free to K-12 schools (a potentially lucrative customer base) in March.

Seeing human faces brings an instantly relatable element to any B2B campaign. That’s why Microsoft’s Story Labs microsite, which frames some of the company’s initiatives and guiding principles around real people and their stories, is so effective.

Let Empathy Guide Your B2B Marketing Strategy

In order to walk in someone else’s shoes, you first need to untie and remove your own. Making empathy a core strategic pillar requires marketers to take a step back, disconnect from their ingrained perceptions and assumptions, and get fully in tune with the people they serve. Only then can we create the type of relevant and personalized experiences that drive deep and long-lasting brand engagement. For more tips that will help your business-oriented content strike notes of genuine empathy, read Josh Nite’s blog post on 5 Ways to Humanize B2B Marketing.

The post Boosting and Deepening Engagement through Empathy in B2B Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Boosting and Deepening Engagement through Empathy in B2B Marketing published first on yhttps://improfitninja.blogspot.com/

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samuelpboswell · 4 years

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Boosting and Deepening Engagement through Empathy in B2B Marketing

What Does Empathy Mean in B2B Marketing?

Engaging with True Empathy in the New Era of Marketing

(Source: Nielsen Norman Group)

Examples of Empathetic B2B Marketing

Who’s getting it right and paving the way for a more empathy-driven approach to engaging B2B audiences? Here are a few examples:

My post on seven B2B brands that talk to consumers, not companies highlights several instances of an authentic and relatable human tone shining through.

Let Empathy Guide Your B2B Marketing Strategy

The post Boosting and Deepening Engagement through Empathy in B2B Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

from The SEO Advantages https://www.toprankblog.com/2020/07/boosting-and-deepening-engagement-through-empathy-in-b2b-marketing/

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